Page 21 of Bride of Ash & Dust

I walk to the row of tall windows and stare out at what looks like an elegant walled garden. Anura comes to stand next to me, and I put my arm through hers, just like I did when we were kids and I pretended she was my big sister.

“Do you have any idea when Elrick will arrive?” she finally asks, in a low voice.

I smile. She’s been infatuated with my brother since childhood.

“I could ask you the same thing,” I reply. “He writes to you more than he writes to me.”

Her cheeks darken, a sure sign I’m telling the truth. She opens her mouth, but the door slams behind us before she can speak. I turn slowly, fear pulling at the back of my neck.

My husband stands in the doorway.

He hesitates on the threshold, almost as if he’s waiting to be invited inside. Which is ridiculous. This is his room. Hells, it’s probably one of several, given he didn’t come back here last night.

Maybe there’s someone else in his life. It makes sense, although it also makes me feel like I’m going to be sick.

“Good morning,” he finally says, without moving.

“Good morning,” I reply.

Anura meets my gaze and raises an eyebrow, asking if she should leave. I shake my head. My husband clears his throat, then enters the room cautiously, like he’s checking for traps.

“Come with me,” he says. “I would like to show you the castle.”

I frown. What’s going on? Does he need to say something that can’t be overheard? Well, he’s just going to have to get used to Anura, then.

“Please,” he adds.

I glance down, then run my hands over my skirt. “Fine,” I reply.

“Shall I join you?” Anura asks.

The snake winces like that suggestion hurts. And doubt curls inside me like smoke. Perhaps I shouldn’t push things too far. I shake my head at her.

“That won’t be necessary,” I say.

With that, I cross the room. My husband offers me his arm, and I take it. I try not to look at him, but I can’t help the flash of memory. His naked chest in the candlelight. The look of shock when I took the piece of cake from the end of his sword.

He clears his throat as he leads me out of the room and down the hallway.

“I trust you had a pleasant night,” he says in a cold voice.

I could almost laugh. Instead, I force myself to smile sweetly.

“Which part?” I ask.

He meets my gaze for a heartbeat. His lips twist into something that’s not quite a smile. We walk together through a pair of open doors and onto a gravel path that leads to the garden I saw through the windows of his room.

“The gardens are usually safe,” he says in a low voice. “Too much effort to eavesdrop out here.”

“Unlike your room,” I reply.

He says nothing, and I remind myself that it’s technically my room as well. Our feet crunch against the gravel as he leads me past another empty fountain and several beds of dark, freshly turned earth. The garden slowly gets wilder, until we’re walking beneath a row of gnarled fruit trees.

“This is the way to the stables,” he says.

My breath catches. I know more about the stables of Ethiria than I do about Prince Laurance, the man I was supposed to marry. I’d already decided which horses from Marion I wanted to bring with me and what lines from Ethiria I wanted to breed. And I spent more hours than I want to admit fantasizing about riding along the cliffs of Ethiria and feeling the ocean wind in my hair.

But the snake doesn’t know that. He can’t.